Posted on 08/20/2025 4:26:21 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
It turns out many Americans aren’t great at identifying which personal decisions contribute most to climate change.
A study recently published found that when asked to rank actions, such as swapping a car that uses gasoline for an electric one, carpooling or reducing food waste, participants weren’t very accurate when assessing how much those actions contributed to climate change.
The top three individual actions that help the climate, including avoiding plane flights, choosing not to get a dog and using renewable electricity, were also the three that participants underestimated the most. Meanwhile, the lowest-impact actions were changing to more efficient appliances and swapping out light bulbs, recycling, and using less energy on washing clothes. Those were three of the top four overestimated actions in the report.
Dogs are big meat eaters, and meat is a significant contributor to climate change. That is because many of the farm animals, which will become food, release methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Beef is especially impactful, in part because around the world cattle are often raised on land that was illegally deforested. Since trees absorb carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas, cutting them to then raise cattle is a double whammy.
“People just don’t associate pets with carbon emissions. That link is not clear in people’s minds,” Zhao said.
Not all pets are the same, however. Zhao owns a dog and three rabbits.
“I can adopt 100 bunnies that will not be close to the emissions of a dog, because my dog is a carnivore,” she said.
The owner of a meat-eating pet can lower their impact by looking for food made from sources other than beef. Zhao, for example, tries to minimize her dog’s carbon footprint by feeding her less carbon-intensive protein sources, including seafood and turkey.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
All kidding aside, we have a wonderful Pyr who will be 13 on Halloween and it will be a Pyr again next time.
Oh I have had many dogs in my days….. theyre brutal but are they destroying the climate? Nah just stankin up the bedroom.
What gibberish
That’s great. 13 is old for a Pyr so you’re doing everything right. My oldest girl is a 14 year old Belgian, I hope she has a couple more years in her but at that age every day is a gift.
It is old for the breed and it is also indeed a gift!
Now it’s time to be with her and pay close attention to small details and give her special care. She carried me through tough times. Now it’s my turn and my joy.
Yours too!
The very best to you and fuzzy
The writer was referring to cow farts.
OTOH, there is a whole lot more pasture-woodland than pasture-cropland. USDA underreports the former (not necessarily deliberately). A cow can walk around a tree.
Next they will tell us not to have any more children (I have seen this already somewhere in the news). We humans are a virus on the face of the earth. Only the elites will be allowed to procreate.
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